URBAN LANDSCAPES
ThiS issue of the newsletter is devoted to the renewed
debate concerning the formation and definition of the
urban landscape and the rethinking of our attitudes
toward intervention. We reprint here introductory
remarks from three recent symposia on urban issues
which, while presenting distinct approaches, all confront
the ultimate inseparability of landscape, culture, politics,
technology and urban form.
Opening discussion sessions during the
Urban ReviSions symposium sponsored by MaCA and
the L.A. Forum, John Kalis ki and John Chase both focus
on decentering the role of urban design in the fabrication
of cities. Chase celebrates the ad hoc contributions of
city residents to the formation of urban space, and
cautions against the false optimism of comprehensive
urban planning. Kaliski situates urban design in relation to
theory and culture, arguing that from above and below,
respectively, both must factor into a designer's vision .
These comments are set to appear in expa nded form in

an upcoming collection of essays, "Everyday Urbanism
Will Always be the Newest Urbanism."
Another nexus for the discussion is the
point at which landscape and the city were thought to
meet. In his introduction to the symposium Denaturalized Urbanity, held at Harvard 's Graduate School of
Design, Mohsen Mostafavi addresses the impossibility
of attempts to draw clear distinctions between concepts of nature, suburb and city. Concurrently, a call is
made for an increased awareness of the spatial conseQuences of social and cultural forces acting upon the
urban fabric. Finally, John Ounon presents background
for the l.A. Forum's summer lecture series, "Natural
Productions: Landscape and Nature in the City." Landscape is approached conceptually, as the mediating
element between the natural and the urban. A broad
range of speakers uncovered myths, critiqued our
existing culture of landscape, and presented possible
directions for the future. -eds.

URBAN CULTURE CONFRONTS URBAN DESIGN
JOHN CHAS E

The common theme of the morning IS
the force. the eUecI. the primary Importance of human
actions In shaping the city Just as urban deSigners
make in terventions In the fabric of the city so do the
city's reSidents' IndiVidual aCliens become collective
inlerven tl ons IllS IUS! as lIk.ely that the sense of a cit y
corner Will be changed by the 1llflval of slree t vendOIS
as th at 1\ might be changed by the millions of dollars

Invested In crea ting a subway slallon at that sile
ThiS porlion of the sympoSium IS a
reminder of these interventions and the power that
these actions have 10 take 011 a life of thelf own, Asfound space IS transformed by human activity An
unused parking lot becomes cordoned of! Into the
patchwork pieces 01 commerClallUrf that make up a
swap meet The spontaneous deCISions by which
Citizens make places for themselves WIthin the Ci ty IS a
hfe force Ihal has ItS own balanCing and regulaung
mechanism, a human ecology that compensales for and
ohen renders Irrelevant Ihe amenities proposed by the
architect or urban deSigner
When a nelghbmhood changes
demographically, the ways In which space IS used and
the sense of shared, communal li fe can change
drasuca!ly, ofte n comple te ly Independem of any
archi tec tural revISions or renovations In the phySical
environment The grOwth of the average household size
can be far male Important tha n new construcuon as a
fo rce that alter s the cadence of li fe and the SOCial
geography of a neighborhood The Illegal converSion of
garages Into hOUSing units IS as hke ly to alter a commu'
nl tles sense of place as the cons tr uction of an offiCially
sanctioned 10w'lncome hOUSing prOlec t The positioning
0 1 urban amenities, controls over land uses, and the
placement of bUildings and spaces IS only part of what
determines the sense of the city PhySical Infrastructure
eXis ts as a trame for reSidents' acuvlty and not Just as a
set o f ma terial artifacts
People's actual use of the bUilt
environmen t and the space of the City has an Inherently
didactiC fu nction. Our experience of hfe IS mysteriOUS,
multi face ted and ever<hanglng Dally hfe IS always the
correction, the competl tron to the efforts of urban
deSigners. The way people hve may not necessarrly fit
the conventlOOS of urban deSign, but urban deSign
nonetheless needs to take account of Ihe way people
hve, and the ways that people use space tactica lly, to
CirCumvent or supplement olllClal strategies.
Not only the use, bu t even the understanding of a ci ty by ItS users. their ability to identify
with and claim part of the City, IS based on a psychologica l reahty that eludes offiCial boundaries. such as
zoning The city IS a psychological landscape made up of
districts of attraction and repulSion, cr eated by a
personal relationship between individuals and the
aspects of the ci ty that move and engage them . In the
final analYSIS, the mos t profoundly moving, the mos t
deeply felt relationships to the ci ty are based on
personal history. on chance, and on the construction of
a personal tra,ectory
I would not propose as the point of thiS
session Ihat urban deSigners somehow co-opt this kind
of indiVidual declsron-maklng, to copy It. to effect a
direct cOllespondence between w hat happens on the
Side 01 the boulevard, the freeway off ramp, the parking
lot. and their forecasts for the fulUle direction of the
city. Even urban deSign In the broadest sense IS always
gOing to accommodate somethIng less than the sum
total of urban hie. And Indeed, would It not be horrifYing
If sophisticated urban deSigners ac tually could meet
every Single SOCial, economic, recreatlona!. spimual. and
logistical need of city reSidents without any direct action
on I he part of those citizens?
But at th e same time the culture of
urban deSign needs to be aware of the larger. uncontrol路
lable world thatll'1habits, trans forms and completes the
cityscape.

URBAN THEORY
CHALLENGES
URBAN DESIGN
JOHN KALISKI

As much as we may want to believe
that the ci ty IS an autonomous work of art. architecture
the mother of urban design, and archItects and planners
the deSigners of the urban enVIIOnment, all who have
tried to deSign an aClUal city know these are fIctIons,
The goal of thIS sessIon IS to explOfe how urban theory
challenges the place and practice of urban deSign as
well as some of the conundrums which aflse when
theory overwhelms the expeflence gleaned from
everyday hfe In thIS shor t IntrodUCtIon, I w,1I attempt to
clarIfy defInItions of culture and theory, and relate them
to concepts of urban deSIgn
At f'lsl glance, theory, hke culture,
challenges urban deSIgn because ItS Ihetorlc and
practices. when set Within the conte.t of the pluralistic
City, dimIniSh the need fOI design or deSigners to shape
the meanrng of place. In a cl l y such as Los Angeles.
where many are unemployed, the envIronment is fouled
and civil unrest lu rk s beneath the surface, priority for the

phySIcal deSIgn of the cIty IS mInImized The body POhllC
beheves that more pressing Issues ex.st In spite of
hmlted deSIgn successes. many of whICh are on view in
MOCA' s ga\tefles (Urban ReVISIons E)(hlblt, t994 ???I,
ulban des.gn IS tYPIcally the frostIng on the cake of a
largel and more pohtlclzed CIty-bUIldIng process where
the archItect Of planner is lil\le mOfe than a spectator.
Howevef. If ufban deSIgn IS defIned as a practIce of cltymakIng wh ich stfaddles cultural and theoretICal
practices, perhaps a more empoweltng lole for the
urban deSigner can be staked out To do th IS one must
first dlsllngulsh the m eanIng and place of culture and
theory, and only I hen define the place of urban deSign in
relation to both.
First, culture: typIcally de fined as the
ideas. Skills, artS, etc .. of a gIven people In a gIven
period, the concept of culture also suggests "nurturing "
fas in cul tivation!, as well as that leap of fa ith associa ted
wit h strong beliefs and cul t worship. What is common

cont inued on page 8

2

DENATURALIZED URBANITY
MO HSEN MOSTAFAVI

In recent years. Amencan archItecture has generally deemphasized il spe<:ific and intended relationships with
Ihe contexts and SltuBtlOns of new bUildings In the ciry.
The term conrel(t, when used, has invariably been
limited to a sense of describing the physical and formal
attributes of a site Independent of Its cultural and
political resonance. At the same lime, some of the more
provocative theoretical research on the Socio-9conomic.
polttlca1. and cul tural dimensions of Amencan cities has
been neither translated. nor translatable into actual
prOleCtlve schema 101 urban Intel"o'entlon.

Caught In architecture's formal Bnd
SOCial dichotomy, Ihe late Manfredo Talun declared the
difficulty if not the Impossibility of a socio-pollllcal
arch,tectu,e until such time that the actual political
Circumstances governing the production of architecture
had changed HIS work cntlcally calls Into question the
IllUSive ambitions of those architects who might have
oth erwise hoped for a revision of the modernist agenda:
an architecture looted In social and political ideals.
Tafuri's hypothesis, which appeared
first In the periodical COn/roplano In 1969, was later
modified arld expanded in hiS book Archllecture and
Uroplaof 1975. "What is of Interest here: he writes,
"IS the precise identification of those tasks whICh
capitalist development has tak.en away from architecture That is to say, what is taken away from architectural prefiguration With thiS. one is led almost automatically to the discovery of what may be called the 'drama'
of architecture today: that IS, 10 see architecture obliged
to return to 'pure archi tecture,' to form withOut utopia;
In the best cases to sublime uselessness.The origins of this 'puflly' can not only
be traced to the Enlightenment but also 10 Ihe writings
of the theologian turned theorist Abbe Laugler and hiS
pronouncements during the mld-tllghteenth century
regarding the fOfmal and aesthetiC simllarrtles between
garden deSign and urban deSign.
According to Laugler:
"Whoever ~nows how to deSign a park
Will have no difficulty In traCing the plan for the buildings
of a City , .. there must be squares, crossroads, and
streets, There must be regularity and lanu'lSy, relation-

ships and OPPOSitionS. and casual unexpected elements
that vary Ihe scene; great order In the details, confuSion.
uproar and tumult in the whole."
laugler's application of naturalism and
the antl-organic Iheofles of the picturesque to the ci ty
radlcaHy modified the naditional and historic divisions
between Ihe cIty and the country by introdUCing the idea
of the city as discovered or methodized nature.
Laugler's formulation further contribu ted to the erasure
of dls!1nct dlHerences and disparities between the City
and nature and, according to Tafun, between "the value
accredited to nature arld the value accredited to the City
as a productive mechanism of new forms of economiC
accumulallon. "
Needless to say, these reciprOCities
be tween CIty and landscape were also at the heart of Le
Corbusler's ideas about the modern city. proposed as a
vanallon 01 urban naturalism, and subtly transformed jfI
contemporary practice into a form of "natural urban-

"m

Thus, among the formative frameworks
of our sympoSium, "Denaturalized Urbanity," has been
the Implicit task of uncovenng the role of urban
naturalism In the schema of contemporary Amencan
cilles. as well as the exploration of more speCifiC SOCial
and critical spaces resulting from the dlalactlcal
connectlons/dlsconnecltons at the Interface of city and
landscape
The French archi tec t and wmer, Paul
Vinlio, +n dealing With the continuous transformations of
the City and of urban boundary asks: Docs a metropolis
still have a facade? At wha l moment can (he ci ty be said
to face us? For Virilio, "The popular expression '(0 go in
to the City,' which has replaced last century's 'to go to
the city,' embodies an uncertainty regarding relations of
opposItes (VIS a VIS arld tace to face), as toough we
were no longer In Iront of the city but always inSide 1\
. .If the metropolis stili occupies a piece of ground,"
Vililio continues, "a geographical poSition, It no longer
corresponds to the old diviSion between City and
country, nor to the opposi tes between cen ter and
periphery The 10calizallOn of the aXiality 01 the urban
layout faded long ago. Suburbia was not Single-handedly

3

responSIble for thiS dissolution. The very OPpoSlllon
IntramuraVextramural was itself weakened by the
revolullon In transportation and the development of
commUnicalion and telecommunication Yet, despite this weak ening of
OPPOSites, much of the recent debate on contemporary
urbanlzat!on In the US has been devoted to suburbia as
part of the ci ty/suburb dichotomy or 10 the rise of the
purportedly new "edge cities" In this nominally
"progressive" march towards new frontiers of
suburbanlzatlon/urbanizatlon. the "traditional" core city
IS left behind, often as a relic of ItS former glory The
urban debate, bamng the problematic "renaissance" of
US Cilies In (he 1980's, has been pnmarily focused on
the clly's Ills, the legitimacy of disurbanlzallon, and the
fligh t to the more "pure" landscapes of the suburban
fronuer ThiS picture, consistently supparted and
constructed by political and economic policy has
transformed bo th the city and citizens' collective
conSCiousness of ItS criSIS While we should not
underestimate the expliCitly construed and the ImpliCitly
enforced state poliCies on family life, gender domlnalion, and labor dlSIJlbullon. there are other alternallves
The time of cnsis IS also a time of
potenllal transformation According to Manuel
Castells, spatial forms Will also be earmarked by
the resistance from explOIted classes, from oppressed
subjec ts, and from dommated women And the work of
such a contradictory historical process on the space Will
be accomplished on an already mhellled spatial form,
the product of former history and the support of new
mlerests, proJects, protests, and dreams. ,.
What are the Implicallon of the urban
CflSIS for us architec ts, landscape architect, planners
and urban deSigners? What IS our role In the process of
reSIsting certain SpaMlitles, while 路projectlng" others?
To address some of these Issues. the
symposium Will focus on the Amellcan city as a
"landscape" Within a -regional" ma!llx. The conSlderallon of the City as pall 01 a regional terrain and policy IS
bo th deliberate and necessary for the constructIon of a
more collabora ti ve and less diVisive prOlect of urbanity
(I.e., ci ty vs. suburb). The term landscape is used 10 lI S
cultural, as well as phYSical sense The mtent IS not 10
separale these two condllions and meanings of
landscape, but rather 10 examine through both Ihe
phySIcal and cultural landscapes of Ihe city the
ramlf,callons arld Infelences of one on the olher, theu
common grounds 10 uncommon places
Among the implications of dealing With
the tenSions between phYSical and cultural urban
landscapes IS the recognillon of their uilimale inseparability. Geographical landscapes are as much cultural
construCIS as cultural landscapes are physical and
spatial. One of the main interesls of the sympoSium
will be to debate the Interface between the projects of
deciphenng urban landscapes as domains of "covert
cultufe," (Leo Marx) and theu receding through future
architectural, landscape. and urban design prOlects: the
topographical Sites of our future everyday Imaginings
The overall theme of the conference will be Ihe
tenSions between the spaces of represen tation and the
representations of space Ithe localtons of cullure).
speCifically developed through he spallali tles of race,
gender and ethnlClty,
As a prOjec t the symposium Will
construct a fragment of an urban landscape - the City,
as the hope of democracy. Though It IS a hope that
cannot be fu lly leahzed, neverthe less we can move
towards an understanding of the dilemmatic spaces of
the city as the new sites o f collaboration and contestation. The reahzallon of the Incompletion of such a
prOject of urbanity IS a necessary condition of its
construction and one would hope a rebuttal worthy of
Manfredo Tafuri and the cui de sacs of the formal and
the social.

INFRASTRUCTURE
AS LANDSCAPE
GARY STR ANG

The goal of transforming th e emllronmem may be
ancient, bu t our ability to realize thaI goal IS unprecedented. In the late 20th century, our technologies less
and less resemble 100is - discrete objects thaI can be
conSidered separately from thell surroundings - and
more and more resem ble systems thaI are IntertwUled
wi th natura l systems. sometimes on a global scale.
In 1947 a WPA worker named Harry
Granld published Underneath New York. the f,lst book
to describe the anatomy of a modern c ity. Working In
cooperat ion with representatives from nineteen
different public utilities and municipal agencIes. GraniC,,"
conveyed the wonder of the hidden SHucture wh ich
converts nawral resources Into the energy that allows
urban culture to be pOSSible.
Just as your brain, nerves. heart. lungs.
and stomach are hidden from View, so il lS w ith the clly.
Its nervous sys tem. the v.tal organs wh ich prOVide It
With heat. water. light, and air; ItS intestines. WhiCh, like
yours. eliminate its wastes; its great arteries of rapid
tranSit. which carry Its stream of life to all ends of Its
body; all these and more are out of Sight under the
pavements and waterways.
The purpose of thiS paper IS to focus
a!tentlon on the vast network of hidden and silent
technology that pervades our surroundings. ThiS great
machine has grown Into an org anizational complex
beyond any IndlVIdual"s understanding or direct
Influence. The traditional concept of sustainable land
stewardshp. which requires the partiCipation of the
indiVidual. has been replaced With a centrally controlled
delivery system. which transports resources hundreds
of miles to urban centers.
The contemporary city can be seen as
an elaborate plumbing system, transporting resources
with a regulaflly and dependability that obscure the
variability of nature. I will argue for a teaching and
deSign ethiC that accep ts this hidden and Silent
infrastructure a an artifac t worthy of seflous consideration. Infrastructure requires realis tiC and understandable expression In the landscape. as opposed to liS
denial Ihrough landscape beautification. The purpose of
thiS approach is to redefine a basis for understanding

what the contemporary landscape has become. to
reest ablish a connection between mdlvlduals and the
workmgs of nature; and to acknowledg e Ihe po te ntial
for c reatmg ne w myths and meanlnglul spaces by usmg
this given Infrastructure as one of the baSIC ra w
matenals of landscape deSign I 11'1111 make a case for
employing the phySical presence of Infrastructu re to
define space to meet needs and deSires, while simultaneously e~poslng enVironmental problems
If It were pOSSible to generate meantng
through the expreSSion of technology, working In
concert with nature. then we would have a Virtually
unlimited supply of raw matellal With wh ich to w ork.
Grantck's New York. fOI example. rests on a foundation
of tangled plumbing as deep as the Chrysler BUilding IS
hrgh. On the top lies a three-Inch mat 01 asphalt.
undtlrlaln by ten Inches of concre te. Below that. a few
Inches of SOil soak up ch emicals from the street. In the
next three Inches are the wires - telephone. electriC.
streetlight. fire alarm. and television cable. Gas lines
puff away another foot below. water mains are at four
feet . steam pipes are Sl ~ feet under _Sewer pipes are
above the vaults of the subway. which vary from a few
feet to eighteen stories below. Water tunnels, running
between two hundred and eight hundred feet down,
occupy the farthest man路bUllt depths. For anyone who
has ever peered Into a New York City street dUring
*surgery, ,. there IS no need to explain the difficulty 01
finding an uninterrupted volume 01 SOil large enough to
support a tree lor the twenty to Ihlrty years that
cons titute ItS average life span (Gr anick 1991 f.
If New York offers more opportunities
for cultural exchange than any other American city. then
the existence of Its complex infrastructure gives
meaning to architect Adolph Loos's observation that the
plumber. brings civilization (Loos 1898f. His enthusiasm
lor plumbers as the pioneers of cleanliness is the result
of Loos feeling the weight of the preindustflal age when
the earth was swept by vast waves of plagues which
traveled thousands 01 miles before their forces were
sllent_ At limes, a third of the populc:tlon of the known
world was lost to disease_ The plOject of civiliz ati on. as
it is curren tly expeflenced depends on a landscape

4

techno logy that IS little exposed and understood by
those who benefit from control of the random catastrophe of nalure
The attempt \0 make nature more
predictable - to prot ect ourselves Irom Innumerable
natural occurrences such as disease fne, flooding.
drought, and even the darkness of nlghtfall- has
crea ted a technology that must mediate between
ourselves and the Infinite vallablll\y 01 nature. The
resultmg urban machine has begun 10 take on some
qualilles of nature Itself . It has the cap <ICily to grow and
to ca talyze growth, and to conduct resources. water,
and energy. as rivers and trees conduc t flUids and
nutllents But most Important. perhaps. IS the IroniC fact
that the resuiling Infrastructure IS so complex that It
presents the same threat of random catastrophe as
does nature According to Williams. "The paradox IS
that the bUilt envlfonment can Itself become a pflme
source of fisk" {1900. 190L " Technology has not so
much replaced nature as il has become a second nature
With Its own attendant pleasure and hazards."
It IS we ll kn own that a Simple broken
water main In Manhanan can tllgger what IS known In
ecological Circl es as a feedback loop; an environmental
alteration tngg ers multip le subsequent alterations. That
IS, the problem is compounded by being directed back
into the system. resulting In additional an magnified
effects. The water main break results In a stalled
subway. forcing traff ic to the streets, whIch culminates
In gridlock. Commerce comes to a halt and repau ellorts
are frustrated . which lead to further flooding and
damage. In more extreme cases. such as the recent gas
explosions In the sewers of Guadalajara, which leve led
twen!y路five square city block. the result of tech nological
malfunction can be a catastrophic loss of human lile.
I! Callforma was once a land of flash
floods and drought. the entire state has, in lifty years.
been transformed into a huge ca tch ment basin. where
the Sacramento and San Joaquin River systems now
function as an elaborate plumbing system. Water flow IS
monitored from Lake Shasta in the north to the Mexican
border in the south. One of the most celebrated
examples {on a scale larger than anything yet conceived
by the likes of Smithson, Heizer, or Christo) is the
Owens River. It f lows through a pipe on a mesa above
its ancient canyon to a larger aqueduct downstream that
provides Los Angeles wi th about 25% of its water . In an
att empt to deliver water south at uninterrupted levels
dUllng dry years. reservoirs have been depleted to
unimaginably low levels. Salt water has intruded into the
San Francisco Bay delta; the Chinook salmon IS on the
verge of ex tinction: and. Ironically, drought and environmental problems 11'1111 likely continue years after norma l
rainS return
The tentacles of the machine reach far
Into watersheds and geologiC layers. to mine resources
and tra nsport energy hundreds, some times thousands.
of m iles to the City to be metabolized. In 1947, Grantck
tells us. the power fr om electriCi ty alone (not to mention
energy supplied by gas, steam. and 0111 prOVided every
man, woman, and child in New York w ith the power of
SIX InVISible slaves working twenty路four hours a day.
seven days a week (Granlck 1991 f. transforming the
sIxteen-hour workday Into a leisurely eight
Although this Infrastructure extends
I rom the urban setting far into what wa s once quaintly
referred to as "the hinterland." the deSigner 's garden
has, In modern history, denied the ubiqUity of the
support system - water, light, power commUnica lionS.
and waste removal- which makes It pOSSible Presum路
abl y a microcosm of our culture's reialionsh ip With
nature, a contemporary garden enga ges pfimailly In
horticultural and architectural and beaulilicalion. thereby
ref using any direct correspondence be tween the
domestication 01 the landscape and the resuiling
geologiC Impact and depletion of natural resources .

Kenneth Frampton recognized the problematic results of
this contradictory design philosophy. Citing Jean
Starobinski:
While techn ical exploitation tended to
wage war on nature, houses and parks attempted a
reconciliation, a local armist ice. introduc ing the dream of
an impossible peace; and to this end man has continued
to retain the image of untouched natural surroundings.
(1991,421.
Degenerate permutations of the
picturesque landscape as a mask for technological
expansion have been embraced as the favored sensibility. while the ~im peratives of economic development
and instrumental reason have effectively laid the world
to waste (Frampton 1991, 60). If it is possible to
entertain the idea that categories of style such as the
picturesque are strategies employed to exclude the
difficult and the unwanted, then perhaps it is not such a
great leap to see t hat a tastefu l landscape of denial
through beautification facilitates th e exploitation of the
landscape through its inability or unwillingness to
question the role of powerful institutions (Ross 1991 1.
Frampton's assessment brings to mind
Lewis Mumford's, in his 1924 classic Sticks and Stones.
where he criticized architects for glorifying a romantic
notion of technology while ignoring vernacular elements
ri

New York rests on a foundation of tangled plumb ing
as deep as the Chrysler Building is high.

of Infrastructure fi ke the wa ter tower and the subway.
Consequently. he attacked the City Beautiful moyement
for obscurin g important structural and social developments, comparing the style to "the icing on a birthday
cake which "de tracts from the realism needed for the
colossal task of the renoyation of the city." ILeFalVfe
and Tsonis 1991. 20). Where he alive today. he would
find updated styles obscuring a system of infrastructure
yastly and impractically expanded beyond the boundaries of the city. multiplying the task of maintenance
and renoyation beyond comprehension.
What Mumford recognized nearly
seventy years ago as an outgrowth of his many books
on the history of technology is that the systems which
support cities and gardens are the tools we haye
employed to create our unique place in history. As such
they are perhaps more complex. interesting. and
potentially meaningful that the landscape forms
deSigned to mask them. We haye yet to acknowledge
thelf contribution to the city and the landscape. The
possibility is precluded. then. of generallng the will and
understanding necessary to bring these technologies
Into a more comprehensible and sustainable relationship
w ith nature. where quality of lile takes precedence oyer
efficient living. and where the individual can acknowledge the direct environmental implications of his or her
daily conveni ences. The logic of these systems remains
inaccessible and inarticulate.
Moreover. the makers 01 gardens afe
frequently charged with hiding and cosmetically
mitigating the intrusive effects 01 this infrastructure on
which we depend. Apart ffOm the need to leaye fOOm
for It. landscape architects and architects are supposed
to concentrate on other things. But what other things
are there? Without a coheren t strategy for designing
with infrastructure, our towns and landscapes bear
witness to the manife stations of an unbalanced
environment: traditional towns and landscapes are
disfigured by double yellow lines. meters. transformers.
junction boxes. traffic lights. and overhead wires. New
construction ignores the technology by neatly concealing it. along with any traces of nature, in formula ic
homogenized settings. The buill environment cannol
continue indefinitely to make only superficial adjustments to the imperatiYes of this landscape technology.
Whether above or beneath the surface. a Brazil-like
N

continued on page 10

5

,-

IS GREAT
LESLEY MARLENE SIEGEL

Names maner The dliference be tween nammg a
hapless mfant Mortimer 01 Hercules charts the destiny
of that child The same 15 true for pets They have
names because they are the object of human affection
The pet's name subsumes the animal persona of the
pel Wllhm the human milieu If your new kitten's fur IS
soft and long, yOu call 11 "sllky," and you thonk 011\ as
fluffy and pell<lble. rather than as 11 VOraCIOUS lillie
carnivore. Naming a pel IS an act of curatorial edl\o:shrp
thai repOSitions how thai pel w,lI be treated by lIS
owner A dog named "Duchess" ineVitably inspires 11
different reaction than a dog named "DaiSy
Affection can be laVished upon
inanimate objects as well. par!lcularly objects With
domestiC connotations The apartment bUlldmg signage
photographed by Lesley Marlene Siegel confers a
personal relauonshlp between bUildings, and the ll
owners and occupan tS JUSt as pet names do between
pet owners and pets The occupants 01 the "Starlet"
apar tmen t house probably have a slightly different
mlndset about who they are. where they live. and what
their lives are all about. tha n do tbe occupants of, say.
"The Diplomat."
At the same time, some apartment
bUildings In Southern California present themselves as
rleutral containers of hOUSing. As such they are available
to receive narrative meaning They present little or no
obstacle to themlng, or to the Incorporation of props and
Iconic decorative elements, such as overscale lamps
and slgnage. The blank box IS a backdrop, personalized
by lighting, planting, paln\lllg and cosmetic frames
around fenestra ti on and bUilding edges. Words that
have escapist associations With recreation or entertain路
ment, such as "Palms, Sands or Riviera," lend romance
to bUildings that might otherwise appear as prosaic
sh elte r.

-

".
The willing observer IS manipula ted into
accepting an environmen t as being tre d \0 ano ther era or
place. Wuhou t names the Simply constructed and
detailed bUildings would not otherwise convey these
meanings. Architecture as a plastiC medium becomes
fla ttened to a two dimenSional tabula rasa on which the
naming, landscaping and lighting confer personality and
Identity Their decoration and themlng are ohen
divorced from the construction of the base bUilding,
occurring as a separate and final stage
Lesley Marlene Siegel ac ts In the role of
cur ator, or an director, taking eXisting as路 found meaning
and rearranging It, amplifying It, and commenting on

6

what she finds . She )olns toge ther the IndiVidual
elements to demonstrate the way In which names
become a reflection of the larger world surrounding
these apartment houses. Siegel begins al the pOint at
which the bUilders of these apartment houses have
comple ted their role In the crea tion of their onglnal
Intended meaning She arranges them as part of a larger
se t of names
In her compOSitions of named lacades
Siegel reveals the underlYing themes common to many
of the developers. whrle at the same time she
reinterpre ts the artifact as an observer, giving It new
meaning by grouping IndiVidual bUilding names In\o

larger thematic associations. She appropriates them and
repositions them in terms of her own set of visual and
symbolic linkages.
The most sympathetic understanding of
the function of the sign8ge on the buildings that Siegel
photographs is that It simply creates a metaphor tha t
otherwise would not be there. The buildings they adorn
were construc ted in the commercial vernacular of their
period. as a means of housing people as inexpensively
as possible. Blowing up the scale of the building name
and utilizing it as a super-sized decoration is a costeffective method of allowing its tenant. and those who
pass by It. to understand the building in a more playful.
fictional sense.

""

__
1-

..

MONAC .. ,,路
856 7

Siegel further humanizes these named
bUildings by demonstrating how thelf facades olten
represent specific moments in the lives of the people
who created them: buildingboard tflbutes to children.
spouses. events and institutions important to them. Her
photographs and interviews with the developers and
builders of the stucco box analyze the relationship
between public and private realms. These public
facades offer up their names to the world outside. while
Siegel's reportage reveals what private meaning the
names hold.
-John Chase

When they arrived from their native Germany, Ray and
Maria placed the name of their yoong daughter on the
apartment building purchased as income property.
Janine hoped to ooe day write her name in the cursive
style of the sign which seemed so big to her while
growing up. She learned to swim in the courtyard pool
to the delight of neighbors who tossed in dimes for her
to find . Janine Apts. has now become her "small, yet
peaceful oasis in the middle of a huge metropolis."

7

Since 1990. arllst and photographer Lesley Marlene
Siegel has been documenting Sou/hem Califorma's
apartment building names of the 50's, 60's and
early 70's through her project, Apartment Living is
Great. Her work has been featured in gallery
exhibits. the Wall Street Journal. Los Angeles
Times and Interna/ional CNN.

k a lis k i continued from page 2
to all of these defml1lons IS acceptance of the idea that
knowledge IS generated from direct e ~pe flence and
wisdom of dally hfe gleaned fr om social Intercourse.
Hence. the lorm of the cl ly IS primarily nurtured by
and responsive to cultural vOices and cus loms that are
everywhere around us
From the perspective 01 the urban
deSign and planning profe sSions. which pflvilege
speclahzed knowledge and techrllQues. one might say
tha t cul tule and liS many sUb-cultur es challenge Irom
below. One tactic towards an empowering urban
deSign practice IS for the deSigner to lllOfe actively
embrace the sUb-cultural vOices of the city and to
propose forms that allow the e~presslon of those
voices. On the other hand. a myopic culturalism can
Quickly lead to localisms that exclude full participation
In the actiVi ty and design of the city. Theory can at
times serve as a buffer to counteract this type 01
destluctive separallsm but in doing so challen ges
culture. as well as urban deSign, from above.
A theoreucal perspective grants a
contemplative and mental viewing of ideas w ithout
the necessity of social intercourse which culture
suggests Theory allows for clear statements of
pflnclples and the creation o f Interpretive and
speculative frameworks descflbmg phenomena that
may transce nd the daily experience of life. The
reve latory possibility 01 urban theory, however. is
abstract m companson to a strictly cul tural perspective . Theory reQUlles a distan ced view and only
becomes pro-active when revealed phel"lOmena. which
sometimes are not even VISible to the persons
effected. are maniJ}\Jlated. A conundrum for urban
deSigners or pl anners eXists when laclle embracing of
theoretical positions leads 10 formalisms distanced
Irom the more immediate concerns 01 cultural
practices. In real ity, the urban deSigner's or planner's
role in the making 01 the ci ty is weakened when purely
theoretical positions are taken Without an understanding 01 cul tural constrains.
To move beyond the conundrum of
bemg either too mass-oflen ted or too abstract to be
relevant to the concerns 01 coty-maklng, the urban
deSigner and planner must l it directly w ith in the
concerns o f the city as opposed to Viewing them from
either above or below. Perhaps It is best to th ink of
urban deSign as the three dimensional projection of
cmlcal discourse into the environment. That definition
allows us to experience as physical design. for
e~ample, Ihe Rodney King Civil Disturbances of 1992
as well as debates about l iscal poticy or air Quality.
These situations become ac ts of ci ty design due to the
fact that the look, feel and e~perience 01 the ci ty, its
open spaces. as well as its indiVidual bUildings. are
Impacted. Without particlpallon m these simUltaneous
conversauons from above and below, the act of
planning and deSigning the City is re legated to
Irrelevance.
The ~ passlve aggression ~ of much
urban deSign and plannmg is ultimately due to
del,nltions of urban deSign which emphasi2e political
accommoda tion In the absence of either cultur al or
theorellcal pOSitions. The discourses of culture and
theory are the pincers wh ich define the uses of urban
deSign as a phYSical art form . An Incorporation of both
IS paramount If phYSical deSign and architecture are to
be meaningful Wllhln the conte~ t of the city and not
Simply private aCllvllles carried on With pleasure by a
prrvlleged or self路selected elite In essence. the city
deSigner. as opposed to the archltec\. has to constan tly Incorporate the cult of profeSSional knowledge
Within and between cultural and theoretical practices.
If the goal of thiS session is to explore
how urban theory challenges the place and practice of
ulban design, then the objective of this session is to
e~plore the bal ancing act between culture, theory and
practice and to determine wha t the designer's role
becomes when theory engages the urban and
becomes a social and cultural ingredient in the
conceptuali2ation of place.
In this context tWO Questions arise : Is
the city designer stiU consigned to irrelevance when
theory engages the city. or more positively. does
theory allow the city designer to become a medium
and resource for other voices and cultural positions?

San Fernando Valley. 1950.

NATURAL
PRODUCTIONS
JOHN DUTTON
The Forum's summer lecture series. Natural Productions , featured eight speakers who addressed the issue
of nature and landscape In the city. Such an Issue IS
particularly complex in Los Angeles. which more than
almost any other AmerICan clly has promoted itself.
thlough the prodUClion of seductive myths. as a natural
paradise. an oasIs In the desert surrounded by mountainS and oc ean. That most of the se "natural" attllbules- the r.ontinuous sandy beaches. the groves of
orange trees, the blankets of green lawns punctuated
With palm trees, the lushly planted developments
amongst the canyons and hlllsides- do not e~lst m
some essential and unadulterated state. but are rather
cons tructed With as much wOlk, vISion. and capi tal as
Ihe laYing of a freeway or the cons truction of a building.
IS eaSily. even deliberately. fOl gollen The perpetuatlOfl
of the myths of Los Ange les as a nalural parad ise In fact
fuels the destruction 01 much upon which these myths
are based. Hlstollan Mike DaVIS reveals. for e~ample,
how the very oran ge groves whose Images lured many
to Los Angeles were at the same time being destroyed
and developed to accommodate thi S new in flu ~ of
Angelenos. Such images became. therefore. nostalgic
representation of how l.A. once was. and. hopes the
homebuyer, might be.
How we see nature in the city IS of
course an ideological phenomenon. M uch of the way
we have traditionally perceived nature has been
Informed by artists. especially wnters and painters.
Landscape painting. a genre which emerged in the
seven teenth century. appropriated particular images of
nature and presented them as ~ Iandscape ". worthy of

8

being depicted and sold as art. as well as Imitated In
garden and park design. Landscape must therefore be
seen as a cultural construct; II IS an Ideology which
frames the way we perceive nature. and therefore
Informs the way we treat and make It.
Cilles. on contrast to nature, have
traditIOnally been envisioned as the realm of culture.
The hlstonan Leo Mar~. author of The Machme in the
Garden, has outlined the numerous myths which have
governed the way America ns port ray nature, all of which
depend on this essen tial distinction between nature and
ci ty. One of the more potent myths is the ProgreSS ive
betref In man'S destiny over nature: the ImpoSition of
CIVilization. refinement. and order over an untamed.
savage. even menacing nature. Very different . but as
powerful, is the pastoral percepllon of nature as a place
of harmony, serenity, beauty. and even divinity. In
contrast to the corrup tion, chaos. and oppression 01
Cities. 80th constructions of the idea of ~ nature ~ are
still to an extent relevant and inform much 01 the
cu ltural and political debates today.
If cities have historicaliV been seen in
contrast to nature. it is "landscape" wh ich has mediated
be tween the two. The idea of landscape makes nature
acceSSible to the city dweller. as an urban park. a private
garden, a landscape painting in a museum, Of even a
Club Med billboard luring weary urbanites stuck in rushhour fraffie. The nineteenth cen tury notion of parks as
the lungs of the city, or Olmstead's view of the civili zing
mission of urban parks, never really fook hold in the
sprawling. privatized world of Los Angeles. and given
current fiscal and social realities probably never wilt.

But In the confuSion of today's urban, suburban and
exurban conglomerations we lind another landscape,
one of freeways, parkrng lots, Irontlaw ns, concretebanked rivers, high-tenSion wire towers, billboards,
decaying Industrial zones, palm tree allees, scraped
hilltops, and the cenlrllugal sprawl of plaiting for
development . It has been described by many as a
landscape deVOid of tradi tional characterrstics, a
wasteland
Some of the speakers, such as architect
William Fain and architect and landscape architect
Walter Hood, see opportunity In thiS wasteland for a
reintroduced "nature," an ameliorating layer oflandscape upon urban scars. Fain'S proposal utilizes post路
industrial remnants such as railroad right-of-ways as
we ll as portions of the Los Angeles River as sites for a
con tinuous four hundred mile linear public open space
system of parks and recreat ional space. Hood's work in
Oakland utilizes similar leftover spaces as sites for new
parks. Hood specifically addresses the legacy of Urban
Renewal programs, both the spaces and peoples
marginalized by these programs. Sited at freeway
otframps, park.ing structures, housing projects. emp ty
lots, and decimated neighborhoods, Hood's projects use
landscape and urban design to create spaces for those
typically excluded by the spatial politics of the contemporary city. Hood designs, for example, parks for
scavengers of recyclables, streetwalkers, malt whiskey
drinkers, dreamers. loners, and lovers.
Cities have appropriated nature,
subjugated it, altered, and utilized it as essential
components of a complex infrastructural system
supporting the myriad functions of the contemporary
city. Hidden, but complex and ubiquitous systems of
pipes, wires, tunnels, and aqueducts such as electricity,
storm drainage, and plumbing are seen by Gary Strang
as almost organic in their role of giving life to the body
of the city. Strang's work {installations, professional
work, and writings~ attempts to render the invisible

Visib le, to educate. demysti fy, and provoke urban
denizens Into undersmndlng the repercuSS ions and
connections of speCifiC Isub~urban acts With aspects of
nature.
Strang'S work also collapses tradi tional
distinctions between landscape architecture. archltec路
ture, and CIVil engineering for a more compreh ensive
approach to deSign in today's citi es . In a similar
manner, the Idea of "CIVII H In landscape architect
Pamela Burton's deSigns acknowledges the sense of
the original Latin root CIVIl. or "citizen", also the root of
"civiliza tion. " like Simon Schama's theSIS In his recent
Landscape and Memory, Bur ton uses landsca pe as a
medium of both phySical trace and symbolic allusion In
an attempt to evoke not only the inVISible but the
forgollen. The foun tain in her Biddy Mason Park in
downtown Los Angeles, for example, brings above
ground what is usually below. The fountain consists of
exposed, vertically cantilevered pipes with water
running down outside their walls instead of flowing
w ithin: a playful adaptation of the vast systems of water
wh ich exist below our feet.
The desire to control water in Southern
California has resulted in some of the most extreme
contortions of nature. such as the concrete entombment of the Los Angeles River by the Army Corps of
Engineers, primarily as a means of preventing flood ing
by ch anneling storm drainage. Once a source of life for
the original pueblo of Los Angeles which was founded
along the river's banks, the natural river is now a major
public workS project. urban infrastructure at a vast scale.
Author. poet, and Friends of the LA River co-founder
Lewis MacAdams is persuasive and tenacious in his
quest for recognition 01 the River. For MacAdams. the
River must be seen as a grand work of art which instead
of being ignored and invisible, should be confron ted.
used, even celebrated. His collection of poems in
progress entitled The River, evokes William Carlos
Williams ' long poem Pa terson which uses the form and

Oil wells crowding out houses and palm trees
northwest of downtown at the turn of the
Twentieth Century.

symboltsm of the Passaic River as a means of understanding the cl\y of Paterson. Twenty years later. the
Passaic River was also the focus of a serres of photographs by the ar tist Robert Smithson Ironically entitled
" Monuments of the Passaic," Smithson documented
the decaYing Industrral aspects of the rlver- concrete
abutments, derricks, sewer pipes. storage tanks and
debris. Similarly. Stephen Callis' black and whit e
photographs document the Los Angeles River In all ItS
fact ual glory of concrete banks, barbed wire fences,
high-tension wire towers, and railroad bridges and
tra c~s . CalliS' beautiful, haunting work provokes us to
see anew elements of our ci ty which are so easily
overlooked, or dismissed. Both Callis and MacAdams
attempt to bring the river into the everyday consciousness of Los Angelenos.
Art istic represen tations of nature have
had a strong influence on the way we perceive and
create landscape . The relationship of landscape painting
with landscape design was at its strongest In the
eighteen th century. The ideal Arcadia n paintings of
Claude Lorraine were embodied in Picturesque gardens
by W illiam Kent, Humphrey Repton and others as a
serres of carefu lly choreographed scenes for the viewer.
W ith the Invention of the Claude glass. a small brown
lens which would soften views of nature to imitate a
Claude painting, any aspiring tourist to the country could
"make " their own picturesque landscape. In today's
Los Angeles. however, with the ever-present haze of
smog, artist Kim Abeles hardly needs a Claude Glass to
obscure the view of her subject, a pea~ of the San
Gabriel Mountains as seen (sometimes~ from her
downtown loft. In "Moun tain Wedge," Abeles
photographs the barely visible mountain everydaY until
finally, 14 months later. it is clea rly viSible through a
smogless sky. The final image of th e clear mountain. in
all ItS factual clarity, is not, however, mechanically
reproduced as a pho tographic print. but rather represented by an oversize impressionistic painting, an image
lodged in her memory iike a great ruin . Abeles Smog
Col/ector series f urther attempts to make the invisible
(well, hazy~ visible by using the particulate matter of
smog as the medium of her artistic productions, The
revelation of smog is the revelation of the human hand
affecting our environment, and a commentary on nature
as mitigated through ecology and politics,
The speak.ers in this summer's Natural
Production series, helped us to realize that there is a
cul ture of nature. Our society'S ability to alter and affect
nature, from recombinant DNA to plas ti c surgery, from
theme parks to virtual reality is so pervasive that the
"real" in nature is slipping inaccessibly beyond layers of
hype/real. Perhaps logically. the industrial era which
saw the destruction of so much of the natural world has
been replaced by a post-industrial service-oriented world
which promotes tourism of a repackaged, reproduced
and re-presented nature. Nature is becoming more and
more something that we visit on the week.ends or
watch on an IMAX screen. There is a distance from ,
perhaps negligence of, nature that has a long history in
Los Angeles . M ike Davis showed us how the few
serious planning attempts \0 balance both nature and
urban growth, such as those of Olmsted Brothers.
Robert Alexandflr, and Garrett Eckbo, fa iled primarily
from lack. of political leadership and the pressures of
speculation. Such neglect of the "real" nature of Los
Angeles IS perhaps not exceptional given the Indus tiles
of simulacra w hich reSide here (Disneyland, HolIVV"ood)
and the city' s foundation upon SimplistiC myths of
nature . The lecture serres intended to address thiS
negligence and distance by provoking Issues which
challenge the way we see nature. for how we see
nature In turn determines how we produce it. protect It.
and use It In the fu ture.
Lec tures o rga nized by the Forum Events Commmee :
JOhn Dutton, cha ir
Joe Day
DaVid Leclerc
Th eresa Rorlrigues
Jennifer Siegal
Julte Silliman
Mike Sy
Peter Tolkln

9

s t ran 9

continues from page 5

resolu tion of abandoned and newly Installed systems IS
working Itself out. where the Infrastructure tend ~ to
overwhelm the amenity II was Intended to provide
The complexlly of this Issue IS rare ly
noticed within the discipline. Infrastructure IS rendered
invisible by a conspiracy of Indifference which seems to
filter its undeniable presence ou t of critical discourse
(Pawley 1988). While architects and landscape architects sidestep the problem of deSigning Wi th infrastructure. they are also eXCUSing themselves (rom being
relevant . It IS no wonder, the. that deSigners putting
forth thelf best efforts to mitigate technological
Intrusions sometimes find themselves perceived by the
publiC to be accomplices to capital ventures. puuing a
happy fa ce on environmental degradation and the
evaporation of meaning from the landscape
Developing an architecture of landscape
technology could be cen tra l to reinvigorating landscape
design with meaning. An examination of prelndustrral
strategies Implies that some of the most profoundly
moving landscape spaces were nothing more than the
Irrigation. domestic wa ter supply. sanitary sewer. and
flood control systems of therr time, elevated to a
POSi tion 01 meaning by allOWing the works of nature and
humanity to be revealed in an eloquent way
A preindustrral urban lountaln Illustrates
this connection . In the tiny Inca Village 01 Wlnay Wlna In
Peru. a manmade fountain was the orderrng system for
the town. Its diagram IS Similar to Machu Plcchu and
many of the high Andean Villages. An amphllhea ter of
agrrcultural terraces ta kes ItS form from a bowl In the
topograpfl\ while an elaborate stair and fountain
connects a temple at the top With a compact cluster of
houses and storage buildings below. The fountai n
Intercepts the flow of a nearby dralnageway With a
serres of stepping water baSinS whose volume can be
held or released depending on the seasonal flow (Strang
1985). The logiC of the watershed was then eVident
within the urban conte xt. whereas a con te mporary
foun tain, With a loop of recirculating water. functions
Irrespective of rainfall and gravity, and IS wholly
Independent of the organization of the town. If the flow
of a fountain IS not diminished In the absence of rain
and has no bearrng on urban form. the n the splntual as
well as the practical connection between the city and
nature has been lost on the user I am not propOSing
that we live like Incas. or even that we rein ve nt the way
cities are made, but that we begin to reveal something
of the process by which we receive our water and Other
resources .
In January of 1991, an exhibition was
mounted at University of California at 8erkeley to
address the problem of the rn fr astructure which IS
burred In the earth and emerges spon ta neously to
confound efforts to create serene and meaningful
spaces in the landscape, Starting With the utilities rn the
Environmen tal Design buildrng that are exposed for
educational purposes, our group attempted to redefine
the space of the room with scaffolding. by engaging the
utilities and following them out beyond the bUilding With
photographs of Industrial landscapes. The goal was to
draw a relallon between the comforts of the bUlldrng
and its corresponding impacts on the environment.
In Apr il of 1992. a second Installation
was mounted at Fort Mason In San FranCISco. Surrounded by other exhibitions of native plan ts, rhododendrons. and so on. we located the bUlldrng's water main.
which sustained all the other gardens. and bUil t a sort of
contemporary urban water system following the
traditional logiC of exposing some key components. Our
premise was that the conception of nature as an entity
lOde pendent from man is now 10 the process 01 being
erased. and new legible models need 10 be prOVided to
illustrate how nature curren tly works and doesn't work.
Intertwined. as It is, With technology.
There are no perfect examples of
strategies for deSigning With Infrastructure But
perhaps there IS some direction Implied by fa rmers and
other pragmatic realists who, as a matter of course,
employ a certain smartness In design. by using
matenals at hand to resolve complex technological and
horticultural problems in an ellicient an beautil ul
manner. Another possibility IS to look for relevance In
the work of those designers who incorporate refere nces
to the tatt ered urban environment as a way of talk ing

about the world and confront ing our POSition With in I\.
Hugh FerllS. working In New York In the 19205,
published The Metropolis of Tomorrow, which included
a number of proposals for Incorporating freeways inlO
hiS claSSical VISion of the contemporary city Jacob
Tchernlkov. the RUSSian conStruc tiVist who was a
contemporary of Ferrrs, saw fit to toss out the classical
language completely in favor of a language based on the
new spatial pOSSibilities of the technological expanSion.
In sou thern California. where the base realiti es of 'cheap
and timely' govern the bUilding Industry most inte nsely,
Frank Gehry has developed an architectural language
which fundamen tally reveals and reinterprets those
difficult bUilding conditions. Zaha Hadld. In her competition entry to the Parc de la Vill ette, used the "periph路
erique" (the freeway skirting the park) to generate
forms and spaces to unify what could not be masked.
In a project for an open chapel and cemetery In
Houston. which I am currently deSigning With architect
Daniel Solomon. the fifty to one hundred Inches of rarn
which falls on the roof each year will eventually be
captured in a huge elevated gutter which doubles as a
portico. The rainfa ll Will be released seasonally Into a
pool that over fl ows to a combined arbor walk/drarnage
structure The problem of dr<llnage and flooding in
Houston IS seen as an opportunity to organize the site
and to confront the cycles of nature
Given the magilltude of changes
occurrrng Within natural systems worldWide. a positIon
that links human survival to the preservation of pristine
nature is rncr easingly difficult to visualize. Nature is a
dynamiC process which is now rarely Independent of
human interaction . Recognizing thiS prinCiple may be
necessary in order to maintain our species. Little to be
gained from holding on to the idea that it is possible 10
protect oneself fr om the invasive reach of modern
science and technology. We have passed that Rubicon.

10

Acknowled ging the potential for
Incorporating technology with new landscape deSign
offers pragmatic and immediate advantages. Funding for
the renova tion of public in frastructure far exceeds the
amount that will likely come available for parks and open
space The state of Texas. for example. plans to spend
five billion dollars in the next ten years on infrastructure
improvements in the Houston area alone. Future urban
amenities will likely be provided following on the heels of
utihtallan projects. where one's ability to accommodate
the demands of technology will be central to the success
of the design.
"The historian of religion Mircea Eliade
has reminded us that the NeOlithiC shift from nomadic to
agricultural civili zation provoked upheavals and spiritual
breakdowns whose m agnit ude the modern mind find s it
ImpOSSible to conc eive," notes Williams. "It is not only
Imaginable bu t probable that the current shift to a
predominantly technological environment has provoked a
similarly, prol oun d spiritual crisis .... We are now
embarked upon another period of cul tura l upheaval. as
we look back to a way of life that is ebbing away" 11 990.
2). However. a landscape ethic based on the marriage of
nature and technology is not so much a compromise of
our traditional strategies and sensibilities. Rather, out of
this ulmpossible peace" emerge new spatial possibiliti es
based on using infrastructure as one of the fundamental
matenals of landscape archi tecture, with the unique
myths and fltuals associated with th e healing aesthetic of
celebrating the hidden.
I conclude with a 1916 quote from La
Corbusier's magazine L'Esprit Nouveau. which is of equal
relevance to landscape architects and architects: ~ The
artist cannot content himself w ith being the rectifier of
the engineer. The artis t and the man of science ought to
labor in a single moment, and herein lies the immense
difficulty of archi tecture. (Caron 1916).
N

practice. Strang and Roche pay particular allenlion to
the systems of infrastructure in our city landscapes.
The revealing of thIS infrastructure, and in particular
New York's steam heating system, IS celebrated
through their proposal for Allen Street Malls in
Manhattan's Lower East Side.
Traditionally, the tools that insured
human survival and comfort were obiec!s of great
reverence. The chaos of the contemporary city. may
in part be due to the fact thaI our tools, now great
support systems of infrastructure that are intertwined
with natural systems, have no formal realization
which expresses their importance to society,
The intent of the SteanfTemple
proposal is to express the wonder of New York's vast
infrastructure and its relationship to nature, A
landscape is proposed which uses infrastructure as
one Of the basic raw materials of the urban garden,
The garden varies with the seasons; in winter, warm
steam rises from the earth while in summer, irrigation
equipment doubles as a cooling device, In each case
the microclimate is modified With products Irom the
underground: the mystery of the contemporary
garden is partially revealed, The chosen site is 8
degraded median strip on Allen Street below Houston
Street with a double row 01 sycamore trees, This long
th in site clearly expresses the linear movements
along the avenues that have come to characterize
New York. Beneath these avenues, the tentacles of
New YOfk's vast infrastructure reach far into watersheds and geologic Layers, to mine resources and
tra nsport energy hundreds, sometimes thousands of
miles to the city to be metabolized, Nature and
technology wOfk in concert to provide the buildings
and gardens 01 the city w ith water, natural gas,
steam, and electricity, while removing the waste
products of the metabolism,

11

DENATURALIZED URBANITY
MO HSEN MOSTAFAVI

In recent years. Amencan archItecture has generally deemphasized il spe<:ific and intended relationships with
Ihe contexts and SltuBtlOns of new bUildings In the ciry.
The term conrel(t, when used, has invariably been
limited to a sense of describing the physical and formal
attributes of a site Independent of Its cultural and
political resonance. At the same lime, some of the more
provocative theoretical research on the Socio-9conomic.
polttlca1. and cul tural dimensions of Amencan cities has
been neither translated. nor translatable into actual
prOleCtlve schema 101 urban Intel"o'entlon.

Caught In architecture's formal Bnd
SOCial dichotomy, Ihe late Manfredo Talun declared the
difficulty if not the Impossibility of a socio-pollllcal
arch,tectu,e until such time that the actual political
Circumstances governing the production of architecture
had changed HIS work cntlcally calls Into question the
IllUSive ambitions of those architects who might have
oth erwise hoped for a revision of the modernist agenda:
an architecture looted In social and political ideals.
Tafuri's hypothesis, which appeared
first In the periodical COn/roplano In 1969, was later
modified arld expanded in hiS book Archllecture and
Uroplaof 1975. "What is of Interest here: he writes,
"IS the precise identification of those tasks whICh
capitalist development has tak.en away from architecture That is to say, what is taken away from architectural prefiguration With thiS. one is led almost automatically to the discovery of what may be called the 'drama'
of architecture today: that IS, 10 see architecture obliged
to return to 'pure archi tecture,' to form withOut utopia;
In the best cases to sublime uselessness.The origins of this 'puflly' can not only
be traced to the Enlightenment but also 10 Ihe writings
of the theologian turned theorist Abbe Laugler and hiS
pronouncements during the mld-tllghteenth century
regarding the fOfmal and aesthetiC simllarrtles between
garden deSign and urban deSign.
According to Laugler:
"Whoever ~nows how to deSign a park
Will have no difficulty In traCing the plan for the buildings
of a City , .. there must be squares, crossroads, and
streets, There must be regularity and lanu'lSy, relation-

ships and OPPOSitionS. and casual unexpected elements
that vary Ihe scene; great order In the details, confuSion.
uproar and tumult in the whole."
laugler's application of naturalism and
the antl-organic Iheofles of the picturesque to the ci ty
radlcaHy modified the naditional and historic divisions
between Ihe cIty and the country by introdUCing the idea
of the city as discovered or methodized nature.
Laugler's formulation further contribu ted to the erasure
of dls!1nct dlHerences and disparities between the City
and nature and, according to Tafun, between "the value
accredited to nature arld the value accredited to the City
as a productive mechanism of new forms of economiC
accumulallon. "
Needless to say, these reciprOCities
be tween CIty and landscape were also at the heart of Le
Corbusler's ideas about the modern city. proposed as a
vanallon 01 urban naturalism, and subtly transformed jfI
contemporary practice into a form of "natural urban-

"m

Thus, among the formative frameworks
of our sympoSium, "Denaturalized Urbanity," has been
the Implicit task of uncovenng the role of urban
naturalism In the schema of contemporary Amencan
cilles. as well as the exploration of more speCifiC SOCial
and critical spaces resulting from the dlalactlcal
connectlons/dlsconnecltons at the Interface of city and
landscape
The French archi tec t and wmer, Paul
Vinlio, +n dealing With the continuous transformations of
the City and of urban boundary asks: Docs a metropolis
still have a facade? At wha l moment can (he ci ty be said
to face us? For Virilio, "The popular expression '(0 go in
to the City,' which has replaced last century's 'to go to
the city,' embodies an uncertainty regarding relations of
opposItes (VIS a VIS arld tace to face), as toough we
were no longer In Iront of the city but always inSide 1\
. .If the metropolis stili occupies a piece of ground,"
Vililio continues, "a geographical poSition, It no longer
corresponds to the old diviSion between City and
country, nor to the opposi tes between cen ter and
periphery The 10calizallOn of the aXiality 01 the urban
layout faded long ago. Suburbia was not Single-handedly

3

responSIble for thiS dissolution. The very OPpoSlllon
IntramuraVextramural was itself weakened by the
revolullon In transportation and the development of
commUnicalion and telecommunication Yet, despite this weak ening of
OPPOSites, much of the recent debate on contemporary
urbanlzat!on In the US has been devoted to suburbia as
part of the ci ty/suburb dichotomy or 10 the rise of the
purportedly new "edge cities" In this nominally
"progressive" march towards new frontiers of
suburbanlzatlon/urbanizatlon. the "traditional" core city
IS left behind, often as a relic of ItS former glory The
urban debate, bamng the problematic "renaissance" of
US Cilies In (he 1980's, has been pnmarily focused on
the clly's Ills, the legitimacy of disurbanlzallon, and the
fligh t to the more "pure" landscapes of the suburban
fronuer ThiS picture, consistently supparted and
constructed by political and economic policy has
transformed bo th the city and citizens' collective
conSCiousness of ItS criSIS While we should not
underestimate the expliCitly construed and the ImpliCitly
enforced state poliCies on family life, gender domlnalion, and labor dlSIJlbullon. there are other alternallves
The time of cnsis IS also a time of
potenllal transformation According to Manuel
Castells, spatial forms Will also be earmarked by
the resistance from explOIted classes, from oppressed
subjec ts, and from dommated women And the work of
such a contradictory historical process on the space Will
be accomplished on an already mhellled spatial form,
the product of former history and the support of new
mlerests, proJects, protests, and dreams. ,.
What are the Implicallon of the urban
CflSIS for us architec ts, landscape architect, planners
and urban deSigners? What IS our role In the process of
reSIsting certain SpaMlitles, while 路projectlng" others?
To address some of these Issues. the
symposium Will focus on the Amellcan city as a
"landscape" Within a -regional" ma!llx. The conSlderallon of the City as pall 01 a regional terrain and policy IS
bo th deliberate and necessary for the constructIon of a
more collabora ti ve and less diVisive prOlect of urbanity
(I.e., ci ty vs. suburb). The term landscape is used 10 lI S
cultural, as well as phYSical sense The mtent IS not 10
separale these two condllions and meanings of
landscape, but rather 10 examine through both Ihe
phySIcal and cultural landscapes of Ihe city the
ramlf,callons arld Infelences of one on the olher, theu
common grounds 10 uncommon places
Among the implications of dealing With
the tenSions between phYSical and cultural urban
landscapes IS the recognillon of their uilimale inseparability. Geographical landscapes are as much cultural
construCIS as cultural landscapes are physical and
spatial. One of the main interesls of the sympoSium
will be to debate the Interface between the projects of
deciphenng urban landscapes as domains of "covert
cultufe," (Leo Marx) and theu receding through future
architectural, landscape. and urban design prOlects: the
topographical Sites of our future everyday Imaginings
The overall theme of the conference will be Ihe
tenSions between the spaces of represen tation and the
representations of space Ithe localtons of cullure).
speCifically developed through he spallali tles of race,
gender and ethnlClty,
As a prOjec t the symposium Will
construct a fragment of an urban landscape - the City,
as the hope of democracy. Though It IS a hope that
cannot be fu lly leahzed, neverthe less we can move
towards an understanding of the dilemmatic spaces of
the city as the new sites o f collaboration and contestation. The reahzallon of the Incompletion of such a
prOject of urbanity IS a necessary condition of its
construction and one would hope a rebuttal worthy of
Manfredo Tafuri and the cui de sacs of the formal and
the social.